1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a document processing device and method, and more particularly to a document processing device and method in which printing positions of plural items to be printed on a print paper (e.g., a paper sheet) can be determined by using a paper-imitating area displayed on a display screen.
2. Discussion of Related Art
A word processor or an electric typewriter equipped with a display having a display for displaying print information over several lines in a group, are known in which address information including, for example, names, addresses and telephone numbers for many customers (clients) can be prepared and maintained (hereinafter referred to as an "address book function"), or a desired item (or items) (e.g, name and address) of the address information can be printed onto a label paper (hereinafter referred to as a "label printing function").
In the word processor or typewriter including the address book function or the label printing function, the address information is classified for every client by making and storing a correspondence between plural item-titles such as "name" and "address" prepared in an address-book preparing mode and item contents (the actual names and addresses to be stored and printed). This information is conventionally stored in a data memory in advance, whereby at some later time, the contents of desired items can be easily printed on a label paper which would then be attached to a letter or package to be mailed, etc.
In order to set the printing position of an item content to be printed on the label paper (that is, in order to position the printing carriage on the label paper) in the word processor or electric typewriter as described above, the label paper is first actually placed in a printing mechanism (printer), a carriage is manually shifted to a desired position on the label paper to set the printing position of the item content, and then an item-title (for example, NAME) for the item content to be printed (the actual name) at the desired printing position is selected and printed. In another example, printing positions of plural item contents to be printed on the label paper are set on the basis of a print-position setting value comprising a line number and a column number selected from a print-position setting menu. Both of these manners for setting printing positions commonly require a tentative printing operation (a test run), and if a print appearance (or layout) resulting from the test run is unsatisfactory, the printing position(s) must be altered by further shifting the carriage or altering the print-position setting value.
As described above, the conventional word processor or typewriter having the address book function and the label printing function requires the tentative printing operation to be performed in which the label paper is actually placed in the printer and the carriage is manually shifted, or requires a print-position setting operation to be performed in which the printing positions of the item contents to be printed are individually set using a print-position setting value of line and column numbers for every item content. Therefore, the conventional word processor or typewriter has disadvantages in that the print-position setting for an item content is complicated, and an actual printing operation must be carried out to ascertain the print appearance (or layout).